Information and inspiration for the woman who trains to fight

There are those women who obsess about locating the “machine” - reaching their limits and then pushing just a bit further. Our aim is to provide a little information and inspiration to feed the fire. Below are the latest tidbits.

We’ve long believed that ice is our friend; that ice will expedite our body’s healing process and that ice chips and frigid dips are something akin to a miracle cure-all for pain and soreness. If you twist your ankle or walk into a door, you are told to apply ice to the injured area in order to speed healing. The reason you do this is that the cold helps constrict blood vessels and thereby reduces swelling, but could you be doing more harm than good? Are you really speeding healing or are you maybe… gasp!… slowing it down?? READ MORE

We all know what it means to train hard regularly and then suddenly be faced with the prospect of missing gym days due to vacation, moving, or, worst of all, illness. Ugh… the tremendous horror of missing gym time! Don’t understand about the horror of missing gym time? You can skip this article, cutiepie.

When you’re young, it’s easy to decide whether or not you’re too sick to participate. If it’s a trip to Six Flags, you’re perfectly fine; if it’s a school day, you’re definitely super sick. As an adult, the equation often becomes complicated, especially if you’re in the camp that believes gym time is a good time. READ MORE

You climb the stairs, slip through the ropes, and step onto the canvas to see your opponent waiting stoically in the opposite corner. The crowd is pulsing around you. The lights are blaring down upon you. And while the final seconds count down before the contest begins, you try to remain focused and relaxed. Once the bell sounds to start the bout, your breath suddenly catches heavy in your chest, your eyes dial in on your opponent, and you seem to float across the ring. Despite the hours of training you’ve endured at the gym, it only takes a few minutes of battle before your muscles begin to feel paralyzed with exhaustion.

What you’re experiencing is an acute stress reaction, often called an adrenaline dump. Your brain perceives the situation as potentially threatening, and this perception causes high levels of epinephrine to be “dumped” into your bloodstream in preparation for action! READ MORE

In the Harry Potter books, characters take part in an invented semi-contact sport named Quidditch. Rabid Harry Potter fans who couldn’t get enough of that make-believe world, took it upon themselves to make the fictional game into a real thing. Similarly, Chessboxing is an actual sporting event that, like Quidditch, began as an invention of the literary world, later brought to life by enthusiastic oddballs.

Never heard of Chessboxing? It's pretty much what it sounds like: a mash-up of toe-to-toe stand-up boxing with head-to-head sit down chess. READ MORE